The technology of the present disclosure relates to an image forming apparatus.
In general, an image forming apparatus, such as a copy machine, a printer, a facsimile equipment, and a multifunctional peripheral, includes a sheet feeding cassette capable of receiving bundled sheets. The sheet feeding cassette is movable between a sheet feeding position, at which sheets can be fed to an image forming apparatus body, and a replenishment position at which sheets are drawn out of the image forming apparatus body and can be replenished. When printing is performed, sheets are fed toward the apparatus body one by one from the sheet feeding cassette located at the sheet feeding position.
In this type of image forming apparatus, when printing is performed, if the sheet feeding cassette during sheet feeding is drawn out from the image forming apparatus body, there is a problem that sheet jam may occur. In order to avoid such a problem, an image forming apparatus including a locking device is proposed. The locking device is configured to lock the sheet feeding cassette when a user's hand contacts with a grasping unit of the sheet feeding cassette. Specifically, the locking device includes a detection unit that detects that the hand contacts with the grasping unit of the sheet feeding cassette, an electromagnetic solenoid that is excited when the contact of the hand is detected by the detection unit, and a locking member that is driven by the electromagnetic solenoid to lock the sheet feeding cassette.